The move to snaps

Hi folks
You are a very insightful group indeed, let me add a few details to the
questions in the other thread.
>
>>
>> * Click is dead, and everything must be migrated to snap.
>>
>
Ultimately yes, for now the store is still open and accepting new click
packages. At some point we will no longer accept new clicks, and then at
some further point (all tbd) the store will only serve snaps.
>
>> * There won't be new phone models until there's a 'snap image'.
>>
> Correct.
>
>> * No bug fixes for clicks, every developer is working in snaps.
>>
>> * There won't be OTA-15, at least as we know it.
>>
>
This is mostly the case. We do not plan to land any features to the current
stable PPA, although we will provide security updates as they are available
for example for the webrowser/oxide.
>
>> So how can we help to speed up the transition to snap? Any estimated
>> timeline? Any roadmap?
>>
>
There are new milestones defined on https://launchpad.net/canonica
l-devices-system-image, you can see the main focus is now on Xenial (which
is the basis for Ubuntu Core 16 that we will use), and there are milestones
assigned to Ubuntu Personal images which also encompasses the work for the
Unity8 session on classic Ubuntu.
How you can help is an excellent question, we certainly want to transition
the click apps to snaps hence the earlier message to app developers. We
will have more stable *test* images soon (for amd64 VMs and PC, and arm64
M10, we also have "kiosk" images for dragonboard and R-Pi in progress)
which should allow us to pick up the pace of the transition. There is also
the Unity8 session on classic desktop available now but it also needs to
stabilize.
In short visit snapcraft.io, and start using and creating snaps in the
standard desktop and in the Unity8 session and provide all the feedback you
can.
>
>
> * Unity 8 development is primarily focused on Desktop features currently,
> so new images are unlikely to see major mobile specific enhancements until
> desktop mode reaches parity with mobile.
>
That's a fair statement. While we transition to snap this is the other
major area of focus. I would add the Unity8 desktop needs parity with the
current Unity7 desktop as we are also still planning to use Unity8 as the
default shell in Ubuntu.
Thanks all for your patience
Pat